Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine [Paperback]

Sami Adwan (Editor), Dan Bar-On (Editor), Eyal Naveh (Editor), Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2012

In 2000, a group of Israeli and Palestinian teachers gathered to address what to many people seemed an unbridgeable gulf between the two societies. Struck by how different the standard Israeli and Palestinian textbook histories of the same events were from one another, they began to explore how to “disarm” the teaching of the history of the Middle East in Israeli and Palestinian classrooms.

The result is a riveting “dual narrative” of Israeli and Palestinian history. Side by Side comprises the history of two peoples, in separate narratives set literally side-by-side, so that readers can track each against the other, noting both where they differ as well as where they correspond. The unique and fascinating presentation has been translated into English and is now available to American audiences for the first time.

An eye-opening—and inspiring—new approach to thinking about one of the world’s most deeply entrenched conflicts, Side by Side is a breakthrough book that will spark a new public discussion about the bridge to peace in the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Innovative... A small but important step, if not toward peace, then perhaps toward understanding... Developed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian teachers, this text will prove useful not just to the young, but to anyone who quails at the thought of even attempting to unravel the knotty history of the Middle East."
—Kirkus Reviews

"The battle lines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict extend to the classroom, where the two sides’ versions of their shared history diverge sharply. Now, two university professors aim to change the way the conflict is taught by exposing Palestinian students to Israeli history lessons and Israeli students to the Palestinian version of history.
—USA Today

About the Author

Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) is a nongovernmental organization established by Palestinian and Israeli researchers with the help of the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. A co-founder with the late Dan Bar-On of PRIME and its current co-director, Sami Adwan has published widely on the role of education in peacebuilding. PRIME co-director Eyal Naveh is a professor of U.S. history at Tel Aviv University and teaches history and history education at the Kibbutzim College of Education.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The; 1 edition (March 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595586830
• ISBN-13: 978-1595586834
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > History > Middle East > Palestine

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is uniquely, brilliantly qualified to portray both sides May 14, 2012

By B. A. Murane

Format:Paperback

This book's simple yet ingenious innovation is a layout common to every English-Hebrew siddur: the right facing page is the Israeli narrative and the left facing page is the Palestinian side, each describing the same events. For example, page 168 is in the middle of the chapter about the 1950s-1960s. The Israeli page features a photo of Adolf Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem; the Palestinian page features a photo of a Palestinian refugee woman embracing a relative through a border fence. The Israeli chapter is titled "The State of Israel: The First Decades" and faces "Years of Homelessness and Despair." As one reads about the bombshell effect Eichmann's trial had on Israeli Jewish identity, you can't help but glance at the other page describing the systematic dispossession of Palestinian property under absentee laws.

Those of us versed in both narratives may be quite familiar with the different traumas important to both sides. But to see them so vividly and loyally portrayed side by side reminds me of how important efforts like this remain. For avid consumers of Middle East histories, this is an innovative quick reference guide. And for those entirely new to this issue, I highly recommend any book that is simple, clear and fair to both sides -- for which this approach is uniquely, brilliantly qualified.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You really should see this August 16, 2012

By billfish

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A group of teachers, professors and journalists tried to develop a unified narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis for practical teaching purposes. They failed. Instead the created this side-by-side presentation of the Israeli narrative and the Palestinian narrative. They are teaching it, and the book was written with feedback from classroom teachers. Pretty amazing.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh way to write history February 1, 2013

By Marilyntje

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

It takes a while to get used to reading just the right-hand pages of a book, then just the left-hand ones (or vice-versa), but it makes it very easy to see how differently the contending parties in a dispute see the same incidents. I hope there will be continuing efforts to improve this book, and that it will be widely read by those who wonder why the Israelis and Jews, and the Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims, have been struggling for so long (close to a century), after having been able to get along much better for the preceding centuries.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly illuztrativeof howhistoryvariesdependinf on one'soutlook December 31, 2012

By A. Grumbach

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a remarkable book. It jot only is a good quick history of Palestine/Israel, but it shows how accounts of the same events vary depending on one's outlook. And, given the high emotions on each side, it is remarkable that the authors were able to work together. For a balanced account of the history of the region it is excellent and there is little else like it to be read.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Research Institute Needs Basic Research April 16, 2013

By Kitchen Magician

Format:Paperback

The so-called Research Institute in the Middle East needs to "institute" some basic research into the history of "palestine"

Palestine was nothing but the English European name for Israel. There has never in history been a country called palestine until the British invented it to name the British Mandate after World War I, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. During 400 years of the Ottoman Empire, there was no palestine. Palestine is an English name. Arabs viewed the land merely as southern Syria, al-Sham in Arabic. Jews called the land Eretz Israel, Land of Israel. In fact, since there is no letter p in Arabic, Arabs cannot even write "palestine in their own language"!

The British also invented the fake name "palestinian" to call ALL inhabitants of the British Mandate, including Jews. In fact, Arabs vehemently rejected the name palestine and palestinian for being Western inventions. Today, everyone is a palestinian i palestine!

The British Mandate dissolved in 1948 and, so, too, did the British-invend palestine cease to exist along with palestinians. The British Mandate eventuated into the state of Israel and its inhabitants became Israelis.

It was the Romans who in the 2nd century first imposed the Latin name "palaestina" on Israel as punishment for the second Jewish revolt against Roman occupation, in an attempt to erase the Jewish identity of the land and 1000 years of Jewish nationhood. The Romans based "palaestina" on the Philistines who were ancient enemies of the Jews, as added insult to the Jews....

Later in the 19th century, European Christians Anglicized the Latin "palaestina" into the English name "palestine"

The fact that "palestine" does not appear, not even once, in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament nor even in the Quran, while Israel appears 2500 times in the Jewish, Christian and Islamc texts, testifies to the name Israel among inhabitants of the Near East.

1 Samuel 3:20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.

John 12:13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! "Blessed is the king of Israel!"

Quran 10:93: We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling place, and provided for them sustenance of the best: it was after knowledge had been granted to them

Had the Romans not invented the name "palaestina," imposed on Israel, Europeans would not have later invented "palestine" and there would be no "palestine" today. The land would have remained Israel throughout the centuries.

So-called palestinians are merely rebranded Arabs originating from Arabia, Egypt and other Arab entities. They are interlopers in Israel.

When historical revisionists and anti-Semites today use the bogus name "palestine," the intent is to, again, erase the Jewish identity of the land as the Romans attempted in the 2nd century. Read more ›